We’re proud to announce a major new crowd-funding campaign in support of whistleblower Chelsea Manning to help pay for her important legal appeal.
Chelsea is currently in the process challenging of her unjust Espionage Act conviction and draconian 35-year jail sentence at the Army Court of Appeals.

First Look Media, publisher of The Intercept, will match donations up made to Chelsea up to $50,000, and journalist Glenn Greenwald, a founding editor of The Intercept and co-founder of Freedom of the Press Foundation, will also personally match up an additional $10,000—for a total of $60,000 in matching funds! We hope this will give everyone even more incentive to donate, knowing that any contribution you make will automatically be doubled.

Chelsea is currently $80,000 in debt and will need much more to see the appeal all the way through. Her legal team will need to raise at least $200,000 to get through the first major aspect of the appeal stage.

Five years after her disclosures of State Department cables and war logs to WikiLeaks, Chelsea’s whistleblowing continues to have a profound impact on how journalists, historians, and the public understanding and reporting on US foreign policy and governments around the world. As Greenwald wrote today at the Intercept:

Knowingly risking her own liberty, she gave those documents (none of which was Top Secret) to WikiLeaks for publication in order, as she put it at the time, to trigger "worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.” To this day, those materials she made public — which revealed massive wrongdoing, deceit and criminality — are centrally featured in journalism about critical stories in the public interest all over the world...To this day, those materials she made public — which revealed massive wrongdoing, deceit and criminality — are centrally featured in journalism about critical stories in the public interest all over the world. These disclosures played a role in sparking the Arab Spring by exposing corruption of that region’s tyrants as well as thwarting U.S. efforts to stay longer in Iraq by documenting brutal war crimes committed there by American forces.

She could have enriched herself by selling those documents to a foreign intelligence agency or media outlet for enormous sums, but did none of that. That’s because she had only one motive: to inform citizens around the world of what their governments are doing in the dark.

After being subject to brutal treatment before her trial that was widely condemned by experts as torture, Chelsea was handed a draconian 35-year sentence under unjust law never meant for whistleblowers. Despite the fact that the US government could not point to any concrete harm posed by Chelsea’s whistleblowing, she was not allowed to make a public interest or whistleblowing defense in court.

Being in prison while trying to figure out how I will pay for my legal appeal has been a great source of stress and anxiety. I’m so honored that a new campaign is supporting me in my effort to vindicate my legal rights, and I am truly grateful to anyone who is helping.

We hope this is more than just a chance to donate to Chelsea as her legal team continues their quest overturn the horrible military precedent for future whistleblowers. It’s also an opportunity to show your support for Chelsea in a meaningful and public way, and to make a statement about how important brave whistleblowers like Chelsea are in a just and transparent democracy.

As you’ll see on our front page, we’re keeping track of how many people donate so the public can see just how much support Chelsea has across the country and the world. Whether you donate $10, $50, $100, or $1000, you are sending a strong signal that prosecuting whistleblowers under a pernicious law like the Espionage Act is a danger to press freedom, harms the public interest, and is unacceptable in a democracy.

We are not taking any fee for the donations to this campaign, so 100% of every dollar donated will be earmarked for Chelsea Manning’s legal defense. After the campaign is complete, we plan on donating the funds directly to The Chelsea Manning Legal Trust, which was set up by Chelsea’s lawyer Nancy Hollander to pay for the legal costs of Chelsea’s appeal.

Currently, Chelsea’s legal campaign is now more than $80,000 in debt and will likely need to raise at least another $120,000 on top of that to get through the first court hearings. Right now we’ve set the goal at $120,000, but we have no doubt that with your help, the public can fully fund Chelsea’s legal costs.

The task Nancy Hollander and her team have in front of them is enormous. Before filing their brief and arguing the case, they must read the entire record record of the case, which is 139 volumes of over 300 pages each. It is the longest court record in military history. Then Chelsea’s appeal goes first to the Army Court of Appeals. That court can order a new trial or sentencing, reduce her sentence or reverse her convictions. Nancy's full statement about the work ahead of her and her team is below.

Given how much Chelsea has done for journalism and the public good, helping her support her case is the least we could do.

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Full statement from Chelsea's lawyer Nancy Hollander:

Nearly two years ago today, Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years behind bars for a heroic act of truth-telling to protect innocent civilians. We are proud and honored to represent Chelsea Manning in this historic appeal with the potential to order a new trial or sentencing, reduce her sentence or reverse her convictions.

If this case stands—along with other recent cases—anyone who ever leaks a single page of classified information runs the risk of prosecution under the Espionage Act. That Act was meant to punish spies and saboteurs, people who act against the United States. It was never meant to prosecute whistleblowers and this case presents a disastrous precedent that needs to be overturned. A healthy, free society needs brave individuals to hold the government accountable for its actions at home and abroad.

"The issues on appeal include the horrific way that Chelsea was treated, subjected to months of solitary confinement and harsh restrictions that were outrageous, punitive and unnecessary. She was denied her constitutional right to a speedy trial and experienced a wholesale lack of due process.

My law partner, Vince Ward, Chelsea’s detailed appellate counsel, Cpt David Hammond, and I are working our way through the longest written record in military history and take on this fight willingly. Chelsea has the right to have someone stand between her and the awesome power of her own government when all that power is directed at her. Vince and my work for Chelsea is sustained by thousands of her supporters who stand with her to challenge our justice system to honor the rights of all people who put themselves at grave personal risk to protect and defend others.]]>

http://boingboing.net/2015/07/16/how-you-can-contribute-to-whis.html/feed0Report: US pursuing active criminal case against Wikileaks' Assangehttp://boingboing.net/2014/05/20/report-us-pursuing-active-cri.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/05/20/report-us-pursuing-active-cri.html#commentsWed, 21 May 2014 01:53:58 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=304467a multi-subject investigation" by the FBI, US court documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request reveal.]]>a multi-subject investigation" by the FBI, US court documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request reveal. ]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/05/20/report-us-pursuing-active-cri.html/feed0A profile of Julian Assange, by his ghostwriterhttp://boingboing.net/2014/02/22/a-profile-of-julian-assange-b.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/02/22/a-profile-of-julian-assange-b.html#commentsSat, 22 Feb 2014 15:14:17 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=288997Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, 2011. Toby Melville/Reuters"Ghosting," by Andrew O’Hagan, is a most interesting personal profile of the Wikileaks founder by a writer in the most interesting position of having ghostwritten Assange's autobiography.]]>

From O'Hagan's account of their first meeting, in which they discussed the sort of book Assange originally wished to write--part memoir, part manifesto:

He said he’d hoped to have something that read like Hemingway. ‘When people have been put in prison who might never have had time to write, the thing they write can be galvanising and amazing. I wouldn’t say this publicly, but Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in prison.’ He admitted it wasn’t a great book but it wouldn’t have been written if Hitler had not been put away. He said that Tim Geithner, the US secretary of the Treasury, had been asked to look into ways to hinder companies that would profit from subversive organisations. That meant Knopf would come under fire for publishing the book.

I asked him if he had a working title yet and he said, to laughter, ‘Yes. “Ban This Book: From Swedish Whores to Pentagon Bores”.’ It was interesting to see how he parried with some notion of himself as a public figure, as a rock star really, when all the activists I’ve ever known tend to see themselves as marginal and possibly eccentric figures. Assange referred a number of times to the fact that people were in love with him, but I couldn’t see the coolness, the charisma he took for granted. He spoke at length about his ‘enemies’, mainly the Guardian and the New York Times.

A story in the Washington Post today quotes unnamed "senior law enforcement sources" as saying that US prosecutors haven't yet filed a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but the nearly three-year grand jury investigation continues.

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Julian Assange. Image: Reuters.

A story in the Washington Post today quotes unnamed "senior law enforcement sources" as saying that US prosecutors haven't yet filed a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but the nearly three-year grand jury investigation continues.

The report follows weeks of rumors that an indictment was imminent, after the unsealing of an indictment for Edward Snowden. One source quoted in the story says, “Nothing has occurred so far. If Assange came to the U.S. today, he would not be arrested. But I can’t predict what’s going to happen. He might be in six months.”

The Justice Department has unsealed an indictment charging former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden under the Espionage Act. Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong and then Russia, leaked tens of thousands of documents about U.S. surveillance programs that have led to reports in The Washington Post and the Guardian, among other publications around the world.
“Snowden was a person who swore an oath, an employee of the National Security Agency,” said a second senior U.S. official, drawing a line between Snowden’s legal obligations and responsibility, and someone like Assange.

Today at the court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the former intelligence analyst who provided Wikileaks with hundreds of thousands of classified government documents, Former Master Sergeant Paul David Adkins testified. He explained to the court his "deficient response" to several incidents involving Manning which now, in retrospect, are understood to have deserved more attention.

Manning's attorney David Coombs says the defendant will "take the stand" tomorrow, Wednesday August 14. Whether he will do so as a witness or an unsworn statement is not clear.

A few months before the leaks to Julian Assange, Manning sent Adkins an email titled “My Problem,” with an attached photo of Manning dressed in a wig and makeup, presenting as female. Snip from that email written by Bradley Manning to his superior officer, which was presented in court today:

This is my problem. I’ve had signs of it for a very long time. It’s caused problems within my family. I thought a career in the military would get rid of it. It’s not something I seek out for attention, and I’ve been trying very, very hard to get rid of it by placing myself in situations where it would be impossible. But, it’s not going away; it’s haunting me more and more as I get older. Now, the consequences of it are dire, at a time when it’s causing me great pain it itself.

Adkins referenced the email to mental health professionals but didn’t explain its contents, and he didn’t take the matter to his commander.

In a December 2009 counseling session with Sgt. Daniel Padgett, Manning flipped over a desk, sending government computers crashing to the floor. Chief Warrant Officer Joshua Ehersman testified this morning that Manning then gestured toward the weapon rack, so Ehersman restrained him in a Full Nelson hold. Adkins was informed of the matter but again didn’t tell his company commander.

In perhaps the most troubling incident, Adkins came upon Manning curled up in a ball on the floor of a supply room, with a knife beside him on the floor. He had carved the words “I want” onto the chair next to him. Adkins said he calmed Manning down but didn’t take him to see anyone.

A former leader of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s Army intelligence unit in Iraq allowed him to keep working with classified information despite recurring concerns about his mental health because the unit was understaffed and Private Manning was playing an irreplaceable role in analyzing insurgent threats, according to testimony at his court-martial trial on Tuesday.

Adkins received a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand (GOMAR) informing him he had failed to provided info directly related to the commander’s determination on whether to deploy Manning. He also had failed to provide info critical to whether to maintain Manning’s security clearance.

An administrative review board reduced his rank from master sergeant before he retired from the military.

The breakdown in leadership in the chain of command and the fact that Manning should never have been deployed because he was suffering from mental health issues is evidence the defense hopes the judge will consider when deciding how long to sentence Manning to prison.

Had he not been deployed, the world would have never seen any of the information he disclosed to WikiLeaks—the “Collateral Murder” video, the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs, the US State Embassy cables, the “Gitmo Files,” etc.

Tweets from reporters at the trial below, some of which detail increased and shifting security measures the Army public affairs staff are imposing on press.

This trial is about Don't Ask Don't Tell in a big way-- and it's tragedy so many so shorts sighted in their politic to see that. #Manning

The 25-year-old Oklahoma native was accused of leaking classified information while stationed in Iraq to Julian Assange, who published it at Wikileaks.org and provided news organizations with access. Manning was found not guilty of "aiding the enemy," the most serious charge which carried a possible life sentence, but was found guilty of 6 Espionage Act charges and other offenses that could add up to 136 years of prison time.

Today, at 930am Eastern time, Judge Lind reconvened court at Fort Meade to begin the sentencing phase of the trial.

First, the government's military prosecutors will call their witnesses. Two will testify today: one in an open session, the other in a closed session. After the government, the defense will put on its sentencing case and call its witnesses. Each side has over twenty witnesses scheduled. Kevin Gosztola is live-blogging the sentencing phase here.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, the former Army intelligence officer who provided Wikileaks with an unprecedented trove of U.S. government documents, will hear his fate today in a small courtroom at Ft. Meade, Maryland. He is accused of the largest leak in American history, and the charges against him include "aiding the enemy," which carries a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.

The 25-year-old, who was born in Crescent, Oklahoma, chose to have his case heard by Lind, instead of a panel of military jurors. He was arrested in May, 2010, while serving in Iraq.

I observed the trial from the courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland. On Monday, Colonel Denise Lind, the judge in this court-martial, said she would be ready to present a verdict in the case at 1:00PM Eastern time on Tuesday.

The prosecution described Manning as a "traitor," and said that by leaking State Department cables, military reports, images and combat videos such as the one Wikileaks labeled "Collateral Murder", Manning effectively leaked that material to Al Qaeda and its former leader, Osama Bin Laden. They point to a chat log between Manning and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in which Assange describes Wikileaks as the "first intelligence agency of the people."

On Thursday, closing statements for the prosecution lasted about 5 hours.

"Manning had general evil intent," lead government prosecutor Major Ashden Fein told the court. "He acted voluntarily and deliberately with his disclosures. ... He was not a whistleblower. He was a traitor."

In his testimony, Benkler described Wikileaks as having played a legitimate role in a new world of journalism. The government's characterization of the group as an Anti-American espionage front was inaccurate, he argued. Benkler previously wrote that an "aiding the enemy" charge against Manning is "a clear and present danger to journalism in the national security arena."

Judge Col. Denise Lind denied the defense's request to find Manning not guilty of five counts related to "stealing information" from government databases, and denied the defense's request to declare a mistrial.

Members of the press covering the trial here at Ft. Meade are contained in a building about a quarter-mile from the brick courthouse where the trial is taking place. We are allowed internet access provided for us by the Army inside Smallwood Hall only when court is not in session, and we are not permitted to bring WiFi cards or other forms of cellular data to connect to other networks not provided for us by the Army. We are not permitted to use our cellphones or other mobile devices inside the media operations center.

Inside the actual courtroom, no electronic devices at all are allowed at any time, just pen and paper for reporters. We must pass through security screenings before entering either building, and as is customary, all areas are guarded and monitored by armed military police. Some security procedures are standard for court-martials on the Army base; others are ramped up for this high-profile and sensitive trial. Security procedures sometimes change from day to day.

Reporters are accompanied by an Army public affairs officer, or PAO, at all times, and may not move around the base without escort.

One likely scenario discussed among journalists inside Smallwood Hall is that Manning will be found guilty of all charges, including the Espionage Act charges that carry possible life imprisonment--and that this will be followed by a lengthy appeals process, which could go to the Supreme Court.

When he pleaded guilty to those charges, he spoke from a prepared 35-page statement to the court, explaining his motivation for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.

"I believe that if the general public... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general."

During that court statement, Manning also said he attempted to contact the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico to leak the information to them. Those attempts failed, he said, and he decided to go to Wikileaks instead.

Major Fein argued that Manning was motivated by a desire for fame, and described a selfie Manning took after uploading documents for WikiLeaks.

"This is a picture of a person who thought he'd finally become famous," Fein told the court.

U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning is escorted from the courtroom after a day of his court martial trial at Fort Meade, Maryland. Photo: Yuri Gripas, REUTERS.

Complicating Manning's ethical quandary was a "very private struggle with his gender," Coombs said, referring to his client's exploration of a female alter ego named Breanna Elizabeth he used online.

Manning says he currently prefers to be identified as male.

But during closing arguments, military prosecutor Fein argued "Pfc. Manning was not a humanist; he was a hacker."

“He was not a whistle-blower. He was a traitor, a traitor who understood the value of compromised information in the hands of the enemy and took deliberate steps to ensure that they, along with the world, received it."

Manning's attorney David Cooombs, in closing arguments, described the former soldier as “young, naive, but good-intentioned.”

Is PFC Manning somebody who is a traitor, who has no loyalty to this country, or the flag, and wanted to systematically harvest and download information as much information as possible for his true employer, WikiLeaks?

Is that what the evidence shows or is he a young, naive, good-intentioned soldier who had human life, in his humanist beliefs, center to his decision, whose sole focus was to maybe, I just can make a difference, maybe make a change? Which side of the version is the truth?

He reports that the new, oppressive security measures were ordered directly by the judge because reporters were violating court rules (which no one can find a copy of), and carrying "prohibited electronics." For this, the government needs armed military police standing right behind reporters as they type, in the media room.

Matt says:

I've covered civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts (including a terrorism trial), and the Manning court martial for eight months, and I haven't run into an atmosphere quite as tense as today.

Here's the latest: the Military District of Washington told me in a statement that the new security measures are coming straight from the judge, and in response to "repeat violations of the rules of the court both in the courtroom and the media operations center." No elaboration on what those were.

Col. Denise Lind, the judge overseeing the case, ordered the increased security measures "because of the repeat violations of the rules of the court both in the courtroom and the media operations center with regard to broadcasting and electronics," the Military District of Washington said in a emailed, unsigned statement. "The Military Police are to screen personnel to ensure no one is bringing prohibited electronics into the building and to ensure compliance with the rules of the court."

Armed military police peering over journalists' shoulders, no Internet access in the remote media room, Army staff frisking everyone for phones -- those weren't the only obstacles for reporters covering the trial today. The military also refused to publish key documents the government used to build its closing argument.

http://boingboing.net/2013/07/25/bradley-manning-trial-judge-in.html/feed0In final phase of Bradley Manning trial, a defense of Wikileakshttp://boingboing.net/2013/07/11/in-final-phase-of-bradley-mann.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/07/11/in-final-phase-of-bradley-mann.html#commentsThu, 11 Jul 2013 15:23:14 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=242001covers proceedings in the court-martial of PFC Bradley Manning at Ft. Meade, on the day the defense rested its case.]]>
Charlie Savage at the New York Times covers proceedings in the court-martial of PFC Bradley Manning at Ft. Meade, on the day the defense rested its case. The final witness for the defense was Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler, who authored this widely-cited paper on WikiLeaks. Benkler testified that the organization served a legitimate journalistic role when Manning leaked it some 700,000 or more secret government files.

[D]espite the criticism WikiLeaks has endured, Mr. Benkler said the model it had developed was likely to endure.

“WikiLeaks may fail in the future because of all these events, but the model of some form of decentralized leaking, that is secure technologically and allows for collaboration among different media in different countries, that’s going to survive, and somebody else will build it,” he said. “But WikiLeaks played that critical role of that particular critical component of what muckraking and investigative journalism has always done.”

I traveled to Ft. Meade, Maryland today to observe the trial of Army PFC. Bradley Manning. The 25-year-old Oklahoma native has admitted to providing Wikileaks with more than 700,000 leaked documents, which included battle reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, State Department diplomatic cables, and military videos from combat zones.

Manning downloaded the material from a military network in late 2009 and early 2010 while serving in Iraq as an intelligence analyst. WikiLeaks published much of the material, and shared it with news organizations including Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and the New York Times, which in turn published reports of their own based on the leaked material.

Manning has pled guilty to ten charges, which carry a maximum penalty of up to twenty years in prison. The government has continued to pursue all of its initial charges against him, including charges under the Espionage Act and "aiding the enemy." Civil liberties advocates argue that a guilty verdict could have dangerous consequences on press freedom and First Amendment issues in America.

The defense rested its case today after having called a total of ten witnesses in the trial. The last was Yochai Benkler, a Harvard professor who is the author of a widely-cited paper on the role WikiLeaks plays in what he terms "the networked fourth estate." In his testimony for the defense today, he described Wikileaks as having played a legitimate role in a new world of journalism; he argued that the government's characterization of the group as an Anti-American espionage front was inaccurate. And the prosecution inadvertently gave Benkler an opportunity to explain why an aiding the enemy charge against Manning is so extreme.

http://boingboing.net/2013/07/10/us-vs-bradley-manning-defens.html/feed0Bradley Manning military trial updates: live-blogs, who to follow on Twitter, and analysishttp://boingboing.net/2013/02/28/bradley-manning-military-trial.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/28/bradley-manning-military-trial.html#commentsThu, 28 Feb 2013 22:29:05 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=216035Army private Bradley Manning pleaded guilty on Thursday to 10 of the 19 total charges made by the US that he leaked unprecedented amounts of classified material to Wikileaks, the anti-secrecy organization run by Julian Assange.

Manning entered a not guilty plea to the government's more serious charge of "aiding the enemy," which carries a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. In a statement before the military court today, Manning said he leaked the classified information to "spark a domestic debate."

Ed Pilkington at the Guardian reports Manning first contacted the Washington Post about providing them with some of the classified material while he was on leave in January 2010; the the woman who answered the phone said the "paper would only be interested [in the documents] subjected to vetting by senior editors."

]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/02/28/bradley-manning-military-trial.html/feed7Army releases some documents on Bradley Manning casehttp://boingboing.net/2013/02/27/army-releases-some-documents-o.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/27/army-releases-some-documents-o.html#commentsWed, 27 Feb 2013 18:05:25 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=215656the military today released 84 court documents related to the case of Bradley Manning.]]>In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, the military today released 84 court documents related to the case of Bradley Manning. As is routine, many of the documents are redacted.

The Army private is charged with being the source of classified documents published by WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization headed by Julian Assange.

The documents released today include court orders, and various rulings read aloud in court. The DoD says more documents will be released, pending review and redaction.

WikiLeaks and various journalists and pro-transparency advocates are suing for timely public access to all relevant Manning documents, in a case pending before the military's highest court. Manning has been held for more than a thousand days, already; if convicted of "aiding the enemy," a possible life sentence applies.

Manning will also attempt to read a 35-page statement at the hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, explaining his conduct. But prosecutors have objected to Manning reading the statement, leaving it up the judge in his case, Col. Denise Lind, to decide whether he will be allowed to do so. Manning's efforts to plead guilty to some of the minor charges against him -- such as misue of government computers -- is not part of a plea bargain, said Kevin Zeese, one of the organizers of the Bradley Manning Support Network.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/02/27/army-releases-some-documents-o.html/feed2John Cusack and Jonathan Turley in conversation: the future of leaks, and of Wikileakshttp://boingboing.net/2013/01/02/john-cusack-and-jonathan-turle.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/01/02/john-cusack-and-jonathan-turle.html#commentsWed, 02 Jan 2013 20:58:09 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=203679
At the Huffington Post, actor and activist John Cusack has a conversation with George Washington Law School professor and constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley, and Kevin McCabe, a pal of Cusack.]]>

At the Huffington Post, actor and activist John Cusack has a conversation with George Washington Law School professor and constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley, and Kevin McCabe, a pal of Cusack. The three discuss "WikiLeaks' impact on transparency, the government's response, and the comparison to the Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg."

By way of background: Cusack, Ellsberg, and I are on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a new organization that helps crowd-fund independent journalism outlets working for transparency and accountability in government. The first group of four beneficiary organizations includes the National Security Archive, MuckRock News, and The UpTake and WikiLeaks; more will follow in subsequent rounds.

"WikiLeaks was extralegally cut off from funding after two Congressmen successfully pressured Visa, Mastercard and PayPal into refusing to do business with the journalism organization in late 2010," writes Cusack. "We hope that the Freedom of the Press Foundation will become a bulwark against these types of unofficial censorship tactics in the future."

In their HuffPo roundtable, Cusack and Turley explore some of the legal principles and historic precedents related to the Wikileaks case.

"What Assange did was a massive release of material that showed the breathtaking dishonesty by the US government and governments around the world," says Turley. Is this, or should it be, a crime?]]>

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/02/john-cusack-and-jonathan-turle.html/feed3NYT: In Manning case, "Jailers Become the Accused"http://boingboing.net/2012/12/08/nyt-in-manning-case-jailer.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/12/08/nyt-in-manning-case-jailer.html#commentsSat, 08 Dec 2012 19:52:58 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=199249New York Times finally gets around to covering the Bradley Manning hearings at Fort Meade, MD. The accused private faces a life sentence if convicted on charges he supplied WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of confidential military and diplomatic documents.]]>New York Times finally gets around to covering the Bradley Manning hearings at Fort Meade, MD. The accused private faces a life sentence if convicted on charges he supplied WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of confidential military and diplomatic documents.
But for now, his attorney "has grilled one Quantico official after another, demanding to know why his client was kept in isolation and stripped of his clothing at night as part of suicide-prevention measures." ]]>http://boingboing.net/2012/12/08/nyt-in-manning-case-jailer.html/feed7Bradley Manning's pre-trial hearing: live-blogging, live-tweeting, and live-sketchinghttp://boingboing.net/2012/11/30/bradley-mannings-pre-trial-h.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/11/30/bradley-mannings-pre-trial-h.html#commentsFri, 30 Nov 2012 21:42:51 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=197620

The judge’s ruling does not mean the pleas have been formally accepted. That could happen in December.

But she approved the language of the offenses to which Private Manning would admit, which she said would carry a total maximum prison term of 16 years.

Private Manning made the offer as a way of accepting responsibility for the leaks. Government officials have not said whether they would continue prosecuting him for the other 14 counts he faces, including aiding the enemy. That offense carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2012/11/30/judge-considers-unusual-plea-d.html/feed40Julian Assange on WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, and new Julian Assange bookhttp://boingboing.net/2012/11/30/julian-assange-on-wikileaks-b.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/11/30/julian-assange-on-wikileaks-b.html#commentsFri, 30 Nov 2012 16:31:25 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=197492Democracy Now has an interview with Julian Assange, speaking from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been holed up for about six months. ]]>

http://boingboing.net/2012/11/30/julian-assange-on-wikileaks-b.html/feed25Julian Assange speaks about his life inside the Ecuadorean embassy in Londonhttp://boingboing.net/2012/10/01/julian-assange-speaks-about-hi.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/10/01/julian-assange-speaks-about-hi.html#commentsMon, 01 Oct 2012 21:12:39 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=184662Julian Assange speaks out about living in a one-room embassy refuge with a mattress on the floor and a blue lamp to mimic daylight, your Daily Mail headline of the day.]]>http://boingboing.net/2012/10/01/julian-assange-speaks-about-hi.html/feed10Assange: "You can't ground Spider-Man"http://boingboing.net/2012/08/23/assange-you-cant-ground-s.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/08/23/assange-you-cant-ground-s.html#commentsThu, 23 Aug 2012 16:52:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=177828

A Reuters piece on the ongoing Julian Assange Ecuador Asylum Saga, with a focus on the freedom of speech and press transparency issues that make Ecuador an odd place for a whistleblower to seek asylum right now.

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A Reuters piece on the ongoing Julian Assange Ecuador Asylum Saga, with a focus on the freedom of speech and press transparency issues that make Ecuador an odd place for a whistleblower to seek asylum right now. Not that America or the UK are much better. But it seems that Assange and Correa have bonded over a shared loathing of "big media organizations," as Assange put it, and "false stereotypes" of "courageous journalists and news outlets," as Correa (who has led attacks against media in Ecuador) put it.

In January 2012, Kremlin-sponsored English-language TV channel Russia Today said it had given Assange his own talk show. Critics of President Vladimir Putin's human rights and freedom of speech record condemned Assange for taking the job. In May, Assange interviewed Correa on the programme. The 25-minute conversation, available on YouTube, offers some insight into the rapport between the president with a tendency to muzzle the media and the campaigner for free information.

"Let's get rid of these false stereotypes depicting wicked governments persecuting saint-like and courageous journalists and news outlets. Often, Julian, it's the other way round," Correa said during the interview.

"President Correa, I agree with your market description of the media. We have seen this again and again, that big media organisations that we have worked with ... have censored our material against our agreement," Assange said in response.

He was referring to his dealings with major Western media including the New York Times and Britain's Guardian, which published material obtained by WikiLeaks in 2010 but later fell out with Assange.

Assange denies the charges. In a statement released 12 hours before the court's decision, Wikileaks said "The United States is seeking to charge Julian
Assange - a journalist and publisher - with espionage," and "The US Grand Jury reportedly possesses a sealed indictment, which could be used to extradite Assange to the United States."

Assange and his supporters maintain that the Sweden case is effectively a ruse to bring him one step closer to the US, where a grand jury has reportedly convened to investigate a case against him. Details on those legal developments are murky (such is the way with secret grand juries), so it's hard to substantiate the direct claims made by Wikileaks. Worth noting: the UK also has extradition agreements with the US, and it's not clear that bringing him to Sweden would make things substantially easier for the US, if this truly were the plan.

Assange was arrested in the UK in December, 2010 over the Swedish sexual assault allegations, and out on bail under strict movement limitations for more than 500 days without having been charged with any crime. The UK supreme court is the third court to rule against him in efforts to avoid extradition. He's running out of legal options.

But this week's court's ruling doesn't mean he'll be extradited anywhere immediately. Assange's legal team has until June 13 to appeal the ruling with the UK court, and another possible option awaits: an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

At Salon, Wikileaks supporter Glenn Greenwald writes that "Whatever one’s discomfort with Assange’s supposed personal flaws, that must not deter anyone from standing against what would truly be an odious indictment for the publication by WikiLeaks of critical information in the public interest."

For now, the only legal matter in motion for Assange involves sexual assault accusations by two young women who were, at one time, his fans. And even in that case, he has not yet been charged with a crime. ]]>

Wikileaks announced this week that house-arrested frontman Julian Assange would host a new television interview series with "in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world." The theme, according to the announcement: "the world tomorrow."

Today, news that the network involved is none other than RT, the Russian cable television outlet founded by the Kremlin in 2005, which remains funded by and effectively under the editorial control of the Russian state.

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Wikileaks announced this week that house-arrested frontman Julian Assange would host a new television interview series with "in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world." The theme, according to the announcement: "the world tomorrow."

Today, news that the network involved is none other than RT, the Russian cable television outlet founded by the Kremlin in 2005, which remains funded by and effectively under the editorial control of the Russian state. If you thought Assange's story already read like a pulp spy novel, none of this should be particularly shocking.

In a hyperbolic news release at RT.com, the network today revealed that the program will be filmed at the rural British manse where Assange has been residing under house arrest for more than a year while he fights extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual assault. The first episode will be shot "just a week before Assange's Supreme Court hearing in the UK."

And at the end of that RT announcement: “Details of the episodes and the guests featured are secret for now.” Secret. LOL.

In a press conference today, Julian Assange announced that WikiLeaks will temporarily suspend all publishing activities to "ensure future survival." A financial blockade against Wikileaks by payment processing services and credit card companies has "destroyed" 95% of the project's revenue, Assange said, costing “tens of millions of dollars” in lost funding.

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In a press conference today, Julian Assange announced that WikiLeaks will temporarily suspend all publishing activities to "ensure future survival." A financial blockade against Wikileaks by payment processing services and credit card companies has "destroyed" 95% of the project's revenue, Assange said, costing “tens of millions of dollars” in lost funding.